5 Behaviors That Changed The Future Of Talent Sourcing And Acquisition Forever

Are candidates changing the rules of the game?

Today, high-quality candidates shop for jobs like they shop for consumer goods. They read reviews from real people; they attach themselves to companies that reflect their personal ideals,  and they expect Amazon-like functionality when searching for open positions within their current employer.

To support your recruiting efforts, here are five candidate behaviors that have changed the future of talent sourcing and acquisition forever.

Employee-review sites – like Glassdoor and Indeed – are the most valuable recruiting tools according to a survey of 500 HR leaders. The reason? Brand trust is at an all-time low, leaving many marketing experts to label this the ‘Age of Cynicism.’ Those companies with good employee reviews and active engagement on these sites, can leverage this into active applicant flow.  

Employee reviews, when current or past employees rate their employers and leave comments, can give candidates the confidence they need to calm their cynicism and increase their confidence. This is, of course, if the ratings and reviews are positive. If negative, it’s critical for HR and marketing peers to work together to address any negative reviews. Similar to how a restaurant manager would try to make it right with a customer on Yelp, employers want to monitor and manage all reviews, both positive and negative, to show they care about the feedback and are addressing it. The alternative is losing candidates before they even apply.

Candidates review social media accounts – such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – to get a glimpse into the culture, profitability and tone of a business. HR departments working in tandem with marketing can leverage social media to reinforce a company’s culture, which is an incredibly effective way to reassure candidates that they would be joining a “good” company.

Additionally, empowering employees to share on social media goes a long way not only for an employer’s reach (how many people see their job postings) but also referrals. In fact, 30 percent of employees don’t refer candidates because they are unaware of open positions according to a survey of full-time employees in the U.S. By giving employees the tools they need to share info about their employee experience and open positions readily, employers can better source applicants from the platforms where candidates already spend time and leverage their relationships with people they already trust.

People bring their whole self to work. In today’s highly competitive recruiting market, candidates aren’t willing to sacrifice their core values by working for a company that doesn’t align with their ethos. To more effectively source candidates, it’s critical to promote what a brand stands for and how it helps its employees connect with the causes they care about.

One way to do this is through corporate giving and volunteering efforts. Empowering employees to donate and volunteer with the causes they care most about, not only improves the likeliness an employer brand is viewed positively, but also that a company is embracing inclusivity. In this case, it’s not the company itself choosing the causes an employee should care about, but the employees choosing themselves.

When it comes to the future of talent sourcing, it’s the ability to automate postings and applicant processes. A few indicators of a modern applicant process include video conference interviews, a single system of truth for current and past applications, the ability to post open positions to thousands of job boards in just one click, functionality to share applications with other hiring managers and automatic replies to confirm submissions.

Similar to how consumers would leave a shopping site that would take forever to load, candidates’ patience for an outdated applicant experience is diminishing by the day. HR professionals sourcing talent won’t have a chance to convert candidates to employees if the application process – from reading the initial job description to meeting with the hiring manager – isn’t seamless.

Gone are the days of managers’ talent hoarding. Enterprises need a transparent view of top talent, across their businesses including their experience and their leadership potential. Employees themselves often look cross-company to see if they can apply internally before exiting externally. Turnover is expensive. Organizations need to consolidate high potential talent observations and development across their businesses.

Talent marketplaces are an emerging wish-list item from HR departments and being able to source talent from within will be a requirement in the near future. While technology can help, internal talent sourcing will require a shift in many organizations’ cultures.

Leadership will need to educate managers on the importance of retaining talent and developing talent.

In this so-called Age of Cynicism, HR leaders will need to prove their brand through employee-generated content. Who a company is and what they stand for are just a Google search away. The future of talent sourcing is about respecting the power that candidates have to choose or not choose an employer.